The Nativity, the retelling of the Christmas story by former EastEnders lead writer Tony Jordan for BBC1, emerged as the clear winner on Tuesday at the annual religious programme awards celebrating excellence, organised by the Sandford St Martin Trust.

The four-part drama, shown over the Christmas week by BBC1 at 7pm, won the premier award for religious programming on TV at the ceremony held at Lambeth Palace, London. It was also voted best religious programme of the year in the Radio Times Readers Award.

The drama, which reduced bishops to tears during a BBC screening last December, is seen as a sign of the way religious programmes are breaking out of "God slot" scheduling on Sundays into more mainstream slots.

The Nativity, broadcast in soap-style episodes, starred Andrew Buchan as Joseph and Tatiana Maslany as Mary, and was made by Jordan's production company, Red Planet Pictures.

Songs of Praise, which was once described by a former editor as "the biggest karaoke programme in the world", won a special award as it celebrates its 50th year on air.

The runner-up in the TV category was God's Beggar Children, for the BBC News Channel and BBC World, which followed a Senegalese child home after five years of abuse.

God's Beggar Children beat Rev, the surprise hit BBC2 comedy about a East End Church of England vicar, played by Tom Hollander, currently in production for a second series.

In the radio category the winner was the King James Bible readings sections 1-4, produced by BBC Religion & Ethics for BBC Radio 4.

The runner-up was The Pope's British Divisions, in which presenter Mark Dowd toured the UK's Catholic community, with merit awards led by a Good Friday special about suffering broadcast to prisoners by the National Prison Radio service.

Peter Bazalgette, who chaired the TV judges, challenged religious broadcasters to respond to the moral qualms over the killing of Osama bin Laden by American special forces, as expressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

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